Bibliograph

Balzac's lives, by Peter Brooks

Type

Label

Balzac's lives, by Peter Brooks

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Balzac's lives

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1112379896

Responsibility statement

by Peter Brooks

Summary

"Peter Brooks's Balzac's Lives is a biography like no other, a vivid and searching portrait of the great novelist that is based on a close examination of the extraordinary characters that throng his work. More than anyone, Balzac invented the nineteenth-century novel, with its interwoven plots and diverse and overlapping realities-political, economic, domestic, psychological. Indeed, Oscar Wilde went so far as to say that Balzac invented the nineteenth century! It was, above all, the wonderful, unforgettable, extravagant characters he dreamed up and made flesh-entrepreneurs, bankers, inventors, industrialists, poets, artists, bohemians of both sexes, journalists, aristocrats, politicians, prostitutes-that allowed Balzac to bring to life the dynamic forces of the new era that ushered in our own. Brooks singles out the capitalist Gobseck, the aspiring writer Lucien de Rubempré, the ambitious politician Rastignac, and the gay criminal mastermind Collin, among others, to disclose the secret workings of a great writer's inner world"--, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Why Balzac? -- Eugène de Rastignac -- Jean-Esther van Gobseck -- Antoinette de Langeais -- Raphaël de Valentin -- Lucien Chardon de Rubempré -- Jacques Collin -- Henriette de Mortsauf -- Colonel Chabert -- Marco Facino Cane and Friend -- Living in fictional lives

Classification